Fonds JM-AIY/6203-6335 - Sephardic Community Records

Global extent: 1537 files, 133 boxes, around 40 linear meters

The documents come mainly from from the offices of the Sephardic committee which were located in the building of the Palestine Post (Hasolel street today Havatzelet) destroyed by an attack in February 1948. Some documents disappeared on that occasion, some of which were later found.

The Jerusalem City Archive received the records of from the Sefaradi Organisation in 1993 as a deposit: it means that the records were transfered to the repository without transfer of title, they still belong to the Sephardim Community.

The documents sent by the communities of the Ottoman Empire are either in "ancient Hebrew" (pre-modern Hebrew) or "Ladino". There are sometimes letters in French. Only between 10% and 20% of the archives would be written in "Ladino".

The oldest documents are pinkasim from 1750 and 1759, difficult to understand, very damaged in 1948. Many are uncommunicable (circa 1850). There is a gap between 1820 and 1830. There are gaps, the community almost disappeared. After that, for the period 1890-1920 which represents many documents of which a part is a little damaged.

The writings represented are mainly the "half-calamus" or handwritten Sephardic rabbinic script (documents in "ancient" Hebrew = rabbinic and/or in "ladino" = Judeo-Spanish) and the writing called "letras de karta" or "solitreo" in the correspondence in Judeo-Spanish. Much of these documents have been transcribed according to the modern Hebrew ms alphabet.

The fonds is not closed

An authorization of the Sephardim Community is requested to access and use the documents.

• français

• hébreu

• ladino

• espagnol

The 500 files (47 cartons 6203-6249) processed by Ephraim Levi are described in a more or less long way in his handwritten catalogue in Hebrew, contained in two binders (binder n°1: 26 described boxes, files 1-290; binder n°2: 19 described boxes, files 292-508). Sometimes more detailed descriptions are placed inside the boxes.

It is estimated that about 15% of the collection is kept in Ben Zvi Institute, 2.5% in the Central Zionist Archives and 10% in the National Library of Israel.

Catalogue prepared on January 2015

Author(s) : Avital (in Hebrew), Jonas Sibony, Vincent Lemire, David Manrique (in English), Ephraïm Levi, Gaëlle Collin